Wireless devices, such as cellular telephones, are commonly found in a variety of applications. Cellular telephones usually operate using only one of several cellular protocols, such as CDMA or GSM. However, more recent cellular telephone designs include cellular chipsets capable of communicating using two or more different cellular protocols so that a single device can operate on more than one network. These cellular telephones are sometimes referred to as multimode phones.
Cellular or multimode telephone applications include handheld cellular telephones as well as vehicle telematics units. But regardless of whether cellular telephones are used in handheld or vehicular environments, each application is implemented using similar software/hardware. Given that cellular/multimode telephones are used in the handheld application more frequently than the vehicular application, cellular/multimode telephone software/hardware is often optimized for handheld operation. However, cellular telephone software/hardware used in a vehicle telematics unit can be operated in such a way that it would coexist with the handheld bias of the cellular telephone software/hardware while optimizing it for use in a vehicle.